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Welcome to "Letter from L.A.," a new Forbes blog about what to do, where to go and who to know in the great city of Los Angeles. Without ado, we turn it over to journalist David Hochman, your guide to one of the most interesting, most innovative, most diverse, most future-thinking cities in the world. Yes, we're talking about Los Angeles. At the end, he has a quick question for you, so please read to the bottom.

On a trip abroad recently, someone asked me to describe Los Angeles. Without hesitating, out came a sentiment I’d always felt but never quite put into words: “It’s an awful place to visit,” I said, “but you’d definitely want to live there.”

Los Angeles map by designer Jenny Beorkrem

L.A. doesn’t play well with strangers. The traffic, the strip malls, the vast, unwalkable distances between In-N-Out Burgers. Most tourists leave knowing less about the city than when they arrived. Just quiz a New Yorker, let’s say, about which part of Wilshire Boulevard that subterranean Japanese shabu-shabu restaurant they loved was on. It’s as baffling to them as “earthquake weather.”

And yet, if you spend meaningful time in Los Angeles – or at least know which palm tree to turn left at on Melrose – the town’s charms open up like the 405 Interstate after a Sig Alert. L.A.’s dining scene has never been livelier, its architecture and museums never more acclaim-worthy, and even once-ghostly downtown is hopping with Paris-style patisseries and Thursday night art walks. The city is full of parks and shopping streets and adorable undiscovered neighborhoods nobody knows about. And even the parts people know about have secrets back entrances and a guy named Simon who can get you a seat on the patio and maybe even a blanket.

Beyond that, there's the future. Los Angeles is a youthful, antsy, many-hued city of makers and doers, power brokers and paradigm shifters, and where great big ideas bloom like Jacaranda flowers in spring. Stuff happens here.

“Letter from L.A.” is my carefully curated report on what’s new, who’s awesome and which places and events are worth pulling strings to get into. It might be a restaurant with a talented new chef in Santa Monica or a tiny shop out in Silver Lake selling exorbitant bangles that just won’t stay on the shelves. I will chat up local tastemakers and innovators, preview upcoming events and sniff out a few lifestyle exclusives you won’t read about anywhere else. If there’s a celebrity with a new raw-egg restaurant everyone’s buzzing about, you can bet I’ll tell you how to get your yolk on. Goosebumps moments? We'll get to those, too.

Los Angeles can be hard to get to know. Arrive without a cultural roadmap and you’re useless as a ski pole in Malibu. But if you hit the town with a knowledgeable local, you might just want to stay forever.

Finally, a question for you. "Letter from L.A." wants to hear your Top 3 list of favorite things about Los Angeles. Maybe it's a beach shack along P.C.H., the view from the Getty Center or some hidden truth you've uncovered on the corner of South Spring and Fifth. Leave your list in the comments and follow us or check back for future posts.